Month: October 2011

In the continuing saga of incompetence in crony capitalism in Dayton, we now can thank the Dayton Daily News for finally uncovering a failure by the powers that be in handing out cash to private businesses.

Note, that this was money that was put aside as payola for allowing Waste Management and the Danis Corporation to build a mountain of trash on the West Side- not actual tax dollars:

A $100,000 West Dayton Development Fund grant the city awarded to Loritts-Neilson Funeral Home Inc. could be pulled back after the Dayton Daily News discovered the state had canceled the funeral home’s articles of incorporation in 2007 for delinquent taxes.

Ernest Neilson III, president and owner, owes an undisclosed amount of taxes to the state and more than $36,000 in property taxes on the business, 3924 W. Third St., to Montgomery County, records show.

“If the tax issues are true, then the funding would be in jeopardy,” said Timothy Downs, deputy director of the city’s economic development office, the division that distributes the grant.

Downs said he was unaware of the canceled articles of incorporation until the Dayton Daily News informed him of it.

The background reporting system the city uses did not reveal the cancellation, said Veronica Morris, senior development specialist for the city’s economic development office.

No decision had been made Thursday about the grant, which is funded through landfill fees paid to the city by Waste Management Inc. The grant money is used as reimbursement money for projects recipients of the West Dayton Development Fund have spent money on.

City commissioners approved the grant to the funeral home Oct. 12.

Neilson applied for the grant in August. The grant application he used included a question as to whether he owed any delinquent taxes to the state or any political subdivision of the state.

He responded “no.”

“I said ‘no’ simply because those were already in arrangements and I felt that was no one’s business,” Neilson said Tuesday….

If the grant award stands, Neilson will use it toward a $450,000 renovation and expansion of the funeral home, according to his application.

The list of grants handed out to questionable companies is long and the return on investment reports totally lacking. No other business would survive based on the practices and policies of “economic development” employees of government organizations. The only people who seem to make as many wrong calls and keep their jobs are meteorologists on local TV news. To list a few favorite “economic development” flops- where economic development gurus blew it: the funding of a new HQ for the ponzi scheme called MCSi, money thrown hand-over -ist to Ultracell which never had a production ready product and the tons of money thrown away on the “Wayne Avenue Kroger” which has decimated a neighborhood and given us an empty lot.

Crony capitalism is the correct term for when government gets to pick winners and losers in the private sector. Read this excellent essay from the NYT on crony capitalism in the US by Nicholas Kristof: Crony Capitalism comes home.

Imagine if the West Dayton Development fund went to funding parks and rec programs for kids, or for consolidating good neighbors into solid savable neighborhoods? That may have been real economic development, instead of crony capitalism at its finest.

Despite just being picked to be on the school board from a large field of qualified candidates by a majority Democratic party board- the Rev. William Schooler finds himself the odd man out in the coming school board race when the Democrats endorsed the other three candidates in the four-way race for three seats.

The election wouldn’t have even been necessary, since Nancy Nearny’s original petitions came in 8 signatures short of the 350 required until her angels at the Board of (S)elections found her 8 that got her back on the ballot.

According to sources, The Montgomery County Democratic Party tonight endorsed incumbents Nearny and Sheila Taylor (a party patronage employee in the county) and the Rev. Robert Walker (who is running with Schooler as a “team”) in the race. It’s unclear if Walker even asked for the endorsement.

Of course, Schooler is the only incumbent running who said no to GE and UD on corporate welfare, which paints a big bull’s-eye on his back. Sitting member Joe Lacey even tried unsuccessfully to have Schooler censored for suggesting that the schools would have to come to the voters for yet another levy after helping GE pay the schools nothing for 15 years. (update: Lacey lost)

Considering that the school board race is supposed to be a non-partisan one, it’s interesting that the party feels a need to take a stand.

Seeing that Nearny and Taylor helped pick Schooler in the first place makes this whole thing all the more odd.

What’s even sadder is that more of the people who applied for appointment didn’t even bother with attempting to run.

The four-member board often splits down the middle by party lines, and third party or independent candidates are provided none of the assistance like having their signatures checked by board workers on their “lunch breaks” ahead of turn in.

The board salaries are exorbitant as well: $20k a year to meet twice a month. These positions are nothing but ways to pay off the local political party chiefs who either pocket the cash, or turn it over to the party coffers. Most of the patronage employees are also expected to heavily support the party with donations.

The entire office has no interest in either getting candidates on the ballot or getting ballots into the voters’ hands.

Hence- today’s article in the Dayton Daily News:

The Montgomery County Board of Elections will not have extended evening and weekend hours for early voting after Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Wednesday that he broke two tie votes in favor of the board’s two Republican members.

“My analysis considered the financial constraints of the board and the time already allocated to early voting,” said Husted.

He said there is ample time for people to vote early during normal board hours Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or from home.

“Frankly, I see this as voter suppression,” said Dennis Lieberman, a Democrat who offered two motions Oct. 18 to extend the board’s hours. “People are coming there at 4:30 or 5 to find it was closed. This is not what we should be doing in America.”

He said he was at the board Friday afternoon and it was packed with people who wanted to vote early in person for the Nov. 8 general election. He said the board had budgeted for additional hours. Among area counties, both Greene and Butler boards of election have extended hours, including Saturdays.

Husted’s ruling also overturned Lieberman’s effort to allow early voting after 6 p.m. Nov. 4, which Husted said would violate state law. That law is separate from a voting reform law that reduced the early voting period but which is on hold because it will be subject to a referendum in November 2012. The board’s other Democrat, Tom Ritchie, voted with Lieberman. Husted must break all tie votes.

Board Chairman Greg Gantt and member Kay Wick voted against extending evening and weekend hours and allowing early voting after Nov. 4. Gantt said there are plenty of opportunities for people to vote from home or in the board office, as well as on election day, and the board shouldn’t spend money on staffing for extra hours…

The Rev. Darryl Fairchild, who joined other ministers in complaining about the lack of extended hours, said he was infuriated by the Republicans’ position and Husted’s decision.

“A person who is entrusted to ensure that every person gets a chance to vote decided to prevent people from voting,” said Fairchild. “It is ludicrous for (Husted) to say ‘financial concerns’ given that his party just voted to spend $15 million on a second primary in 2012.”

As Reverend Fairchild points out- the idea of a second primary to select candidates for Congress is only being caused because the secretary of state chose to go with a horrifically gerrymandered new map. The BOE is hoping to hold another restricted polling place election like the one I ran in last year- with 4 polling places for the entire county- which turned out to be a farce.

The reality is, having only one elected person overseeing elections is a farce, and what we really need is to create a new system of chief ethics officers in each county to oversee not only elections but all government offices so that we don’t have the kind of mischief we see in the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

There needs to be an investigation into the overtime being paid for salaried employees, and why Montgomery County is paying double what they pay for the same jobs in Greene County. We also need to start investigating if the claims made by former employees of ballot failures are true- and if they are, need to re-evaluate the qualifications of the employees and the people who hire them.

Democracy is a farce if we can’t trust that our elections are handled fairly and properly.

It’s pretty easy to afford extended hours for a few weeks before an election, just hire some more friends and family to oversee it. Why not? Seems to be the standard operating procedure downtown.

Former Montgomery County Board of Elections workers try to point out that incomplete ballots may have been provided in a 2006 election. (this story broke on esrati.com) Instead of investigating the claim- the BOE starts a witch hunt on how this election info was leaked. The prosecutor’s office plays along- but fails to file charges on the leakers- or investigate the BOE to see if they really did screw up.

Net gain for the voters/taxpayers- nothing. Same old, same old.

From today’s DDN:

The Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office has declined to file charges against two men who admitted distributing a Board of Elections document they said was evidence of wrongdoing in the 2006 elections, according to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday.

After a review of the investigation, the prosecutor’s office cited “a lack of evidence” that election statutes had been violated, according to the investigative report filed by Montgomery County Sheriff’s Sgt. M.D. Hutchison….

“It was my position that it was either a fake or it was just a working copy,” (Steve) Harsman (Dem Director of the BOE) said. Harsman said that the board had asked for an investigation both of the charges made in the letter and a determination of how the document was released. Hutchison’s report shows that Eric Worthen, an elections board employee from 2003 through 2006, and Douglas Tully, who worked there from 1994 through 2007, were the two former employees who admitted distributing the document.

The board must employ equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Both Worthen and Tully are Republicans, said Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Greg Gantt.

Gantt, who is also chairman of the elections board, said he was disappointed with the prosecutor’s office decision not to file charges against them.

The four members of the board, two Democrats and two Republicans, have strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Harsman said that the board would be putting out an official statement later this week.

Worthen said Tuesday night he wasn’t surprised that no charges had been filed against him because “the document that was released was legitimately obtained.”

Worthen also said he stood behind the charges made in the anonymous letter and he wondered why the board members refused to do anything about them….

“The board did nothing wrong,” said board member Dennis Lieberman, the former chairman of the county Democratic Party, who added that “I think the information they provided is false information.”

But let’s look past the matter of whether an election was conducted properly and look at the people who run the Board of (S)elections, how they get there and why no one is willing to hold them accountable. It’s time to demand a major change in how BOEs are put in place in Ohio.

First is the insane concept that we should have un-elected people running the elections. There is only one person in the state who is elected to oversee elections: the secretary of state. Our current one, John Husted, consistently broke the law about residency when he was a state rep and a state senator- with no accountability to anyone- since the local BOE continued to be deadlocked 2-2 and the deciding vote was the SOS which gave him a hall pass.

The idea of letting the Democrats and the Republicans have their political parties fill the four board seats (which pay $20k a year for 2 meetings a month) is the first bit of hypocrisy. What about third parties- and what about the gross overpayment- usually each party’s chair sits on the board to collect a paycheck.

The list goes on. But what is most intriguing is that while the county cries poverty- bonuses, raises and an excessive amount of overtime (for salaried directors) are being handed out. Here is a spreadsheet of pay at the BOE for you to examine from a public records request made by a reader:

If you need further illustration of what is fueling the #occupy movement, compare and contrast two local court cases.

The first is a white-collar swindler, Michael Peppel, who robbed 271 investors of huge sums of money, caused at least 1,300 people to lose their jobs, made his suppliers eat his debts, and then sat in his luxury home on house arrest for years while his lawyers were paid with stolen money- to keep him out of jail- only to be sentenced by a judge for life- to 7 days in prison:

U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith, who concluded in August that a prison sentence of eight to 10 years would be appropriate under advisory federal sentencing guidelines, said she was moved by 113 letters of support she received from friends and family of Peppel. He was allowed to remain free until the Federal Bureau of Prisons directs him to report to a prison.

Peppel pleaded guilty to charges that he participated in a conspiracy to intentionally report false revenues and earnings at MCSi, to cover up losses and prop up the company’s stock prices.

Beckwith noted that five children, an ailing mother and brother depend on Peppel for support. The judge acknowledged that the sentence she imposed was a “huge” departure from the sentencing guidelines but said she does not believe Peppel is likely to repeat his white-collar crimes and that he does not present a threat to the public. There was no evidence that he had looted the company, the judge noted.

Also note, the MCSi was the recipient of locally funded corporate welfare- in that the Montgomery County Port Authority built them a new HQ at 4751 Hempstead Station Drive in Kettering and got caught holding the bag until Mead decided to bail from Downtown in the former Mead Tower to fill the empty building paid for by your tax dollars.

Compare this to a local grocery clerk who stole food stamps and sold a few handguns:

A Dayton grocery store employee who was implicated following investigations into alleged food stamp trafficking and other illegal activities at several local businesses has pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges.

Mohammed Qaqa, who worked at Food City, 1829 Germantown St., pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to charges of dealing in firearms without a license; unauthorized acquisition, possession and use of federal food stamp access devices; and wire fraud.

Qaqa originally faced 11 counts of dealing in firearms illegally, seven counts of misuse of food stamp cards and two counts of wire fraud, but the other charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Still, he could face as many as 40 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines, but few people are sentenced to the maximum penalties, authorities said.

As part of his plea agreement, Qaqa admitted that on April 30, 2010, he sold a 9 mm handgun for $275 while he worked at Food City. The handgun was reported stolen in 2008.

Qaqa also admitted that on June 11 he illegally purchased an electronic food stamp card for $270 that contained $543.39 worth of food benefits, which he used to purchase various items. He admitted that on June 11 he also used a wire communication device to try to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food stamp program.

While working at Food City, Qaqa illegally sold 11 firearms and caused the loss of $2,779 by illegally trafficking in food stamp cards, according to the plea agreement. Qaqa bought seven cards for half the value of the benefits they contained.

Although we don’t know Mr Qaqa’s final sentencing- I’m sure it’s more than 7 days. One also has to wonder where does Mr. Peppel get $5 million- from an offshore bank account where he stashed the money he stole?

Justice in the United States no longer wears a blindfold, just a green accountant’s visor, checking off your balance sheet to see if you can afford the “get out of jail free” card- while the poor continue to “go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.”

Judge Sandra Beckwith should be disbarred and thrown in prison immediately. Note, she was appointed by GW Bush, as if you would have guessed otherwise.

There is no excuse for her soft touch sentencing on this CEO- Criminal Extra Ordinary.